Conventional time domain multiple access (TDMA) satellite communication networks employ multiple radio stations which communicate through an earth satellite repeater by transmitting time-synchronized bursts of radio energy relative to the repeater and which receive a time multiplex composite of bursts containing corresponding modulated information from the repeater. In TDMA operations, multiple ground stations associated with radio signaling nodes transmit bursts of time-concentrated information signals on a shared carrier frequency spectrum and receive the same information signals after repetition by the satellite repeater on a shifted carrier frequency spectrum. Each ground station is assigned a particular time slot in a continuum of recurrent frames for transmission in its bursts and for the reception of its own bursts and the bursts of other stations. The bursts interleave at the satellite in close time formation without overlapping. Each earth station includes connections to incoming digital lines originating from terrestrial sources. These input lines are respectively connected to digital data ports on a satellite communications controller (SCC) at the station.
Prior art techniques for establishing the acquisition of synchronization in a TDMA satellite communications system are typified by one example of the prior art which employs the transmission of a low power acquisition signal from a new station desiring to enter the network, so that inaccuracies in the transmit clock of the new station will not cause major interference with preexisting traffic in adjacent slots within the TDMA frame. The problem with employing a low power acquisition signal is that relatively large receiving antennae must be used in order to detect a low power acquisition signal. This requirement is not compatible with the need in more modern equipment to employ relatively small receiving antennae at the ultimate users' location.